Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Melabella]

Good Morning everyone! Today I have 6 little ones in the brooder! 3 hatched on their own, and are bouncing around like little cotton balls. I made the decision to assist the remaining three after your alls advice upon realizing 12 hours had gone by and no progress had been made in zipping after the initial pips. All three were chirping and by 1:30am I made a choice to intervene. I remember my first hatch where I was too afraid and a little one died in its shell. I was very... nervous as I kept getting new fresh warm paper towels and delicately chipped away. I'm not going to lie, it was nerve wracking and with 2 of them I saw blood which totally freaked me out. I beat myself up saying I should have waited but have to say, the way they were positioned, I'm not sure they would have been able to get out. This was definitely a learning curve for me and time will tell if the assisted ones thrive. Thank you to Bulldogma and lots of peeps on the SFH Facebook community who gave me the confidence to try! Pictures to follow.

MB

 

[Melabella]

 

[Melabella]

This is an issue for me, too, since we have below freezing for a few months in winter. I probably shouldn´t have put any eggs in the bator, but I don´t have a very good Boy-Girl-Ratio yet. I limited myself to just 10, and probably not all of them will hatch. Since I don´t have heating in the coop, though, I´ll probably have to end up keeping them inside most of the winter. What do the rest of you do that hatch chicks at this time of year? Until I got SFH I limited myself to spring and early summer for hatching, but of course with these guys it was hard to contain myself...

I have the exact issue too Alpine. I have a very unbalanced boy girl ratio at the moment, and also realize that I have a tough decision come the end of winter on which two cockerels I will keep for my SFH pen. I realize too, I will probably become attached to more than 2! I am sure Nero, my black based snoeleopard is a keeper, as not only is his coloring intoxicating, what I have tried to learn about desirable traits for a rooster he seems to posses. Every day I check his comb for sprigs, and look at his wings for split! lol....His personality is mindful so far, although, I act accordingly around him, and make him move out of my way with complete regularity as I can tell he is rather bold. I made the completely newbie, stupid _ss mistake of playing by accident a recording of his own crow. I was trying to send it in a message to my husband, and mistakenly hit play. He cocked his head, and I thought ... awww.. how cute... he recognizes his own crow.. NOT.. he flew up in my face and flapped away. (ok,,,, stop laughing everyone). It was a good reminder that I need to treat him like a rooster from that moment on, and I am very respectful of that. As far as which of the other 5 definite, and who knows how many in this new group of 6 I will keep to be determined. I am predicting all ready the big black based chick that hatched yesterday is a boy. His behavior and swagger is exactly like Nero, and the other blue based boy I have growing out. lol.....

Yes.. it is hard to contain oneself with this breed! I was warned, and see how true it is. My birds have done well in the cold here in NY as long as they are fully feathered. My largest challenge is integrating all these different ages. My original group of 3 SFH are way cliquey. Nero beats up on even the younger female chicks... I would think he would be trying to bring them over to his harem.. poor Ava can't be his only sweetheart! My head count of SFH so far is 14. 6 known cockerels for sure. 2 known female known for sure. The 6 that hatched yesterday remains to be seen. Even if I only have one cockerel in this new hatch, it will still only come out to 7/7, which I guess I would be ok with though I doubt there is 5 girls in there. BUT.. you never know!

MB

 

[Alpine Chicken]

I have the exact issue too Alpine. I have a very unbalanced boy girl ratio at the moment, and also realize that I have a tough decision come the end of winter on which two cockerels I will keep for my SFH pen. I realize too, I will probably become attached to more than 2! I am sure Nero, my black based snoeleopard is a keeper, as not only is his coloring intoxicating, what I have tried to learn about desirable traits for a rooster he seems to posses. Every day I check his comb for sprigs, and look at his wings for split! lol....His personality is mindful so far, although, I act accordingly around him, and make him move out of my way with complete regularity as I can tell he is rather bold. I made the completely newbie, stupid _ss mistake of playing by accident a recording of his own crow. I was trying to send it in a message to my husband, and mistakenly hit play. He cocked his head, and I thought ... awww.. how cute... he recognizes his own crow.. NOT.. he flew up in my face and flapped away. (ok,,,, stop laughing everyone). It was a good reminder that I need to treat him like a rooster from that moment on, and I am very respectful of that. As far as which of the other 5 definite, and who knows how many in this new group of 6 I will keep to be determined. I am predicting all ready the big black based chick that hatched yesterday is a boy. His behavior and swagger is exactly like Nero, and the other blue based boy I have growing out. lol.....

Yes.. it is hard to contain oneself with this breed! I was warned, and see how true it is. My birds have done well in the cold here in NY as long as they are fully feathered. My largest challenge is integrating all these different ages. My original group of 3 SFH are way cliquey. Nero beats up on even the younger female chicks... I would think he would be trying to bring them over to his harem.. poor Ava can't be his only sweetheart! My head count of SFH so far is 14. 6 known cockerels for sure. 2 known female known for sure. The 6 that hatched yesterday remains to be seen. Even if I only have one cockerel in this new hatch, it will still only come out to 7/7, which I guess I would be ok with though I doubt there is 5 girls in there. BUT.. you never know!

MB

Congratulations, Melabella on a very successful hatch! I know what you mean about some chicks´ behavior seeming very roo-like. I´ve had a few like that, too, where it was clear from day one that they were roos (overly self-confident and not afraid of anything), but otherwise I wish you five beautiful GIRLS (I especially like the brown one in the first picture). You wrote you let them out when they´re fully feathered: when they´re about 8 weeks old it´ll be mid-December, so you think they could handle the temperatures at that age? I´m just asking because I´m not sure yet what I´ll do with mine (provided they hatch), and I think I´ve got about the same climate here as in NY. And yes, I think you definitely need to keep Nero, otherwise you´re going to make a lot of enemies on this thread

 

[ashtree]

To all you folks with snowleopard SFHs, anyone care to post pictures of yours as chicks? I'm certain I don't have 1 but would be nice to see them as babies anyway
Here's my favorite chick from this hatch, a nice grey coloring with some black and brown

Also @bulldogma do you have pics of the white/red colored one? Like astrid and ginger? I think those are my new favorites

 

[ashtree]

Here's a better pic:

And I too have 1 pretty obvious roo :/ hoping I have at least 3 out of 6 girls!

 

[Melabella]

To all you folks with snowleopard SFHs, anyone care to post pictures of yours as chicks? I'm certain I don't have 1 but would be nice to see them as babies anyway

Here's my favorite chick from this hatch, a nice grey coloring with some black and brown

Also @bulldogma do you have pics of the white/red colored one? Like astrid and ginger? I think those are my new favorites

Hi Ash...

Ok.. here are baby pics of my two Snowbabies....

Nero as a baby, and current




Lee as a baby...

and current


I think they hide in plain site as chicks..lol.

MB

 

[ashtree]

Hi Ash... Ok.. here are baby pics of my two Snowbabies.... Nero as a baby, and current Lee as a baby... and current I think they hide in plain site as chicks..lol. MB

Yep. Nero is stunning! That coloring is really neat. What are the genetics behind it?

 

[Bulldogma]

Here's 1 of my cuties

Little guy was already trying to clean up the crumbs on the rug. Love this breed!

Adorable!

Also @bulldogma do you have pics of the white/red colored one? Like astrid and ginger? I think those are my new favorites

The red/white birds start out as yellow chicks.

 

[Bukrub66]

We went out of town for a couple days. I came in the door this afternoon and headed straight to the back room to check on my two chicks. I round the corner and WOW... They have doubled in size. Today they are 10 days old and starting to get their tail feathers.
We let them out of the brooder and let them have a couple meals worms as a treat. They are so funny to watch. Here is my SFH. I guess I should go join in on the OE thread so the other don't feel left out.